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Paris loses her BlackBerry in Cannes hotel

Not caught on video this time

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The cream of Hollywood is living in fear of crank phonecalls and other virtual assaults after Paris Hilton lost her BlackBerry while cavorting at the Cannes film festival in the early hours of this morning.

The telephonically-challenged heiress was spotted looking distraught by the Daily Mail in the immediate aftermath of the blockbuster data breach.

The paper's show biz writer reported that the normally serene Hilton rushed back to the terrace bar at the Hotel Du Cap to see if she could find the device, which apparently contains details of "her hundreds of celebrity friends".

She emerged ten minutes later wailing, "It's the worst thing that could have happened. It has all my contacts in it and the last thing I want is for it to fall into the wrong hands." Some might say that having your most intimate moments recorded on videotape and then sold across the internet is the worst thing that could happen to you, but there you go.

Either way, Paris knows what she's talking about. Back in 2005 Paris almost precipitated celeb privacy Armageddon when her T-Mobile Sidekick was hacked exposing the vitals of her celebrity circle. The numbers quickly appeared online, reality TV star Victoria Gotti alone getting over 100 phone calls in two hours.

Of course, four years on the consequences are even more terrifying, as Paris has surely extended her circle, which now includes Best Friends from both the US and UK, as chosen via the medium of reality television. Even more worryingly, handset camera and video specs have come on in leaps and bounds, raising the possibility of some delightful footage spilling onto the web.

Commenters on the Daily Mail's website were quick to point out that the BlackBerry features a lock-down feature to enable savvy customers to prevent their address books and other data being pillaged if the device is lost. And of course, contacts can also be backed up. Sadly, it appears Paris is not one of the vendor's savvy customers. ®